Dice Bloggers

Dawn Kawamoto

Dawn Kawamoto is the associate editor of Dice. She is an award-winning technology and business reporter, previously working for such publications as CNET's News.com where she reported on a wide range of sectors from enterprise software to mobile computing to Internet darlings and the funding that fueled their growth. In 2002, she was a Gerald Loeb Awards finalist for coverage on Oracle's sales practices.

If you work in Silicon Valley, chances are you made more money in 2013 than you did in 2012, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Both Santa Clara and San Mateo counties saw an increase in average weekly wages during the second quarter last year compared to the same period of 2012. Wages in San Mateo County increased 8 percent year-over-year. Workers across the country, in a variety of industries, will likely see a 3.7 percent increase in salaries… continue…

If the fledging wearables market becomes anything like the smartphone market, mobile game developers may find themselves creating a new category of titles, according to Reuters. New “micro-engagement” games of 30 to 90 seconds may emerge, specifically tailored to wearable devices from smartwatches to bracelets, from cameras to Google glasses. Juniper Research estimates that there were roughly 87,000 global shipments of wearable “smart glasses” during 2013. By the time 2018 rolls around, the company expects to see 10 million units… continue…

Some recruiters are instructing job seekers to add them to their social networks if they want help finding work, but some candidates are pushing back. “One recruiter said that if I wanted the job, I had to add him to my social network,” recounts Benjamin Weiss, who’s been an Android developer for four years. “That was so arrogant. I already had a good job and I’m good at what I do, so why should I have to add him to… continue…

If you’re among the crush of people at CES in Las Vegas, keep an eye out in case Yi Li has a camera pointed at you. Her startup Orbeus, an API platform company for recognition software, is launching new features for its ReKognition API product that produces not only facial recognition, but scenes. Eventually, it will recognize landmarks and logos. Li’s Mountain View, Calif., company offers recognition APIs and SDKs to third party developers. It’s one of the increasing number… continue…

Like any other game company, Steam’s creator Valve faced challenges in recruiting talent during its early days. As a solution, CEO and Co-Founder Gabe Newell decided to focus on building a strong culture with unique practices. Recently, Newell told the Washington Post that his Bellevue, Wash., company has created a culture of management systems without managers, unlimited vacation and sick time, allowing workers to take on more than one role, and embracing out-of-the-box thinking. The strategy has paid off. Valve’s… continue…

Technology job candidates are among the most likely to be screened with pre-employment credit checks, so they may be particularly interested in a proposal in Congress that would bar employers from using such checks during the hiring process. According to a random survey of 544 human resource professionals, 87 percent say job candidates with responsibility for technology, as well as fiduciary and financial responsibility, are subject to pre-employment credit screening. Oracle, for one, has previously come under fire for its… continue…

People with Transact-SQL skills may find themselves increasingly popular. During 2013, those skills showed the most growth among programming languages on the TIOBE index. Transact-SQL is a key piece if interaction with Microsoft SQL Server, because all applications must send Transact-SQL statements to communicate with them. Although Transact-SQL posted the largest gain over the previous year when it comes to coders searching for programming languages, its increase was not a huge jump like other programming languages have seen in previous… continue…

As 2013 comes to a close, IT professionals in software development, cloud, mobile, Internet of Things and Big Data not only found their occupations in high demand but also face projections of continued interest from hiring managers and recruiters going in to the new year and all the way to 2018, say industry recruiters and analysts. Software developers, which includes such roles as Web developers, software quality assurance engineers, and computer systems analysts, took the No. 1 spot on a… continue…

Hewlett-Packard revealed in its annual report Monday it plans to cut an additional 5,000 workers as part of its restructuring plan – bringing the total carnage to 34,000 pink slips. These cuts are part of its 2012 company-wide restructuring, which was initially expected to affect 27,000 workers and later revised to 29,000. The company cited “continued market and business pressures” as the reason for increasing the layoffs to 34,000. The additional layoffs also follow a pledge in October by CEO… continue…

With the holidays coming to a close, chances are a number of IT professionals are leaving unused vacation time on the table. A recent survey found working Americans will likely leave an average of 12 paid vacation days unused as they exit 2013 – a 30 percent increase from the year before, according to Hotwire.com’s third annual American Travel Behavior survey. These survey results bring into question the true value of the unlimited vacation time perk that companies are increasingly… continue…